Open your Bibles, if you would,
to 2 Kings. 2 Kings chapter 2. The name of
the message is, The Jordan Parted. We'll continue our study in the
life of Elijah. Now, the setting for this is
Elijah has just been taken home to glory in a chariot of fire. And he's been taken up and is
now gone. And as he's taken up, the mantle
of Elijah falls from him. And Elijah takes it up. Elijah takes it up. Look at this,
2 Kings chapter 2, we'll get right into it, verses 12 to 18.
And Elijah saw it and cried, My father, my father, the chariot
of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw them no more, and
he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces. So he's just seeing Elijah be
carried up into heaven. He took up also the mantle of
Elijah that fell from him and went back and stood by the bank
of the Jordan. He took the mantle of Elijah
that fell from him and smote the waters and said, where is
the Lord God of Elijah? One commentator said, he's saying,
are you with me, God? Are you with me? And when he
also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither,
and Elijah went over. And when the sons of the prophets,
which were to view at Jericho, saw him, they said, The spirit
of Elijah does rest on Elijah. And they came to meet him, and
bowed themselves to the ground before him. And they said unto him, Behold
now, There be with thy servants fifty strong men, let them go,
we pray thee, and seek thy master, lest peradventure of the spirit
of the Lord have taken them up and cast them upon some mountain.
I'm sorry, that's comical that they're saying that, right? It's
just, it's, that's all of us, right? In our flesh, right? or
into some valley, and he said, ye shall not send. Elijah said,
Elijah's like, I just saw him go up. He doesn't even tell him,
I just saw him go up to heaven. He says, ye shall not send. And they urged him till he was
ashamed, and he said, send. They sent therefore 50 men, and
they sought three days, but found him not. Three days they looked
for him. You think after the first day,
they go, well, I guess the Lord took him home, right? But no,
they looked for him for three days. And when they came again
to him, for he tarried at Jericho, that being Elijah, he said unto
them, Did I not say unto you, Go not? Didn't I tell you? Didn't I tell you not to go?
So by this time the news of Elijah's glorious transport to heaven
has probably spread through the populace of Jericho. And the
news of Elijah now wearing the mantle of Elijah has went forth
making Him a prophet of God, and one that might be able to
perform miracles, right? Maybe. Maybe, the people might
have thought. And here in our text we have
set before us the first miracle of Elijah. The first of many
miracles of Elijah. He performed more miracles than
any other prophet in the Old Testament. And He does it all,
we know, by the power and might of God. It's not by Him. It's
not by might nor power, but by the Spirit, saith the Lord. It's
not by our might or power that anything's done. Even the furtherance
of the Gospel, right? We're here, we serve the Lord,
we send it forth, and it's by might and power that it accomplishes
His will. And that's the might and power
of the Lord, not by us. So, Again, we have before us
the first miracle of Elijah, all by the power and might of
the Lord, which is to part the River Jordan, to part the River
Jordan, and to walk across dry land to the other side. Now,
I'll tell you what, you think about this. If the Lord parted
the Red Sea, which he did, parting a river, nothing is it, right? Part any waters for the Lord
is nothing, is it? It's nothing. We see His almighty
power on display as much as when He parted the Red Sea as when
He does the river. And we see that same power on display when
we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God. Isn't that wonderful? Absolutely wonderful. My oh my. So again, the news of what has
occurred may have caused the men of Jericho, which we'll see
next week, to come out to Elijah because they had a problem with
the water. They had a problem with the water in Jericho, and
they've tried everything they can to cleanse that water, and
it's still not cleansed. But they might have thought,
well, since he divided the River Jordan, maybe he can help us
with our water problem. Well, next week, Lord willing,
we'll look at that miracle. where the Lord took the bitter
waters, the Lord did it, took the bitter waters and he made
them sweet, made them sweet. And Elijah's, all Elijah is the
instrument he's using, just a tool in the hands of the Lord, right? A physician just uses tools,
don't they? That's what we are. We're just
tools in the hand of the Lord. He does with us whatever he wants,
right? See, but men see these things
and they think it's, oh, maybe it's Elijah doing this. No, it's
God doing this. And Elijah would be the first
one, Elijah would be the first one to say that. Now, Elijah
and we who are born again believers, blood washed by the precious
blood of Christ, know that all this was done by the power of
God. Elijah comes up to that water and he throws down the
mantle and what happens? By the power of God, that water
just splits right in half. He just walked right across.
And we know, as born-again believers, that this is all performed by
the power and the will, too. Remember, the will of God. If
it wasn't the will of God when He threw that mantle in there,
nothing would have happened. But it was the will of God, and
we're going to get into why that happened. It's absolutely wonderful
when we consider When that occurred, what it tells us. I'll tell you,
we're gonna be rejoicing near the end of the message when we
hear that, about that. It's absolutely wonderful. It's
wonderful. And some theologians have called
Elijah the miracle prophet, because he's done so many miracles in
the Old Testament. And as we study his life, we're
gonna see that his ministry consisted of several miracles that God
performed, and using him as the instrument. but all by the power
of God. All by the power of God. Remember
that Elijah's name means God is salvation. God is salvation. In his ministry, he pictures
the Spirit of Christ. Remember I said that Elijah pictured
Christ going across the Jordan to his death and then rising
up to heaven? Well, now who's coming back?
Elijah comes back, doesn't he? He pictures the Holy Spirit coming
down to us, beloved. Christ rose, Holy Spirit comes
down. Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful.
All the types and shadows and pictures that we see in the Old
Testament are absolutely incredible. And being such, it pictures the
work of Christ and salvation of the elect. Because as we saw
Sunday in Sunday school with the word revealed in Galatians
chapter 3, it means to unveil. He's unveiled and showing himself
to us. And remember what the Greek word
said? It said, that which was hid before
is now revealed. Christ was hid to us. God was
hid to us in our natural state. And now he's being revealed to
us by the grace and mercy of God. It's absolutely wonderful.
So why does the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of
Christ crucified, and the preaching of the perfect synotony work?
of Christ face natural opposition and hatred expressed by the religion
of man. Why is the religion of man so
against that? Well, just as Ahab hated the
words of Micah in 1 Kings 22 because he told him the truth.
Men hate the gospel because it tells them the truth. It sets
the truth before them. The truth of who we are, what
we are. The truth of our desperate need
to be saved. Man, I hate that. Because they
don't think they're sinners. I didn't think I was a sinner
before. You and I have talked about that. We didn't think we
were sinners before the Lord saved us. Yeah, we didn't think we
needed nothing, man. But yet we were bankrupt. We
were bankrupt, lost sinners. Oh my. And we also see the children
at the end of this chapter mocking Elijah. Now, I found out something
about children. It says children there, and several people have
used that to say, well, look, look, God had these bears come out
and chew up these kids and all that. I found out, do you know
that Jesus considered a man to be a child until he was 29 years
old? Yeah. Yeah, that's why they were
shocked. When there's Christ 30 years
old, he's talking 33 years old, he's out, just turning them into
pretzels with this theology. They couldn't understand it.
Oh my. So at 30, in the Jewish religion
and Jewish system, that was when they considered a man to be a
man. Before that, they were called a child. So these men we're going
to see, and these people who get tore up at the end of this
chapter, several commentators think that they were probably,
just by their words that they were using and the things they
were saying, that they were probably in their 20s. My, oh, my. You don't mock the people of
God. My oh my. We'll see that. That's
a warning for the world. Don't mock the people of God.
Don't mock God's elect. Oh my. That's for another study,
Lord willing. We'll get to that. So the gospel opposes all that
is false. Right? We see that. Even in Paul's
writing in Galatians, what we looked at on Sunday, The Holy
Spirit has the truth oppose the error. We're to set aside the
straight stick beside the crooked one, right? And you can see the
difference, can't you? Salvation by Christ alone, by
the perfect sinatonic work of Christ, and with nothing with
man is the straight stick. The crooked stick is man's religion. Oh my. You ever watch a dog run? They go like that. Or when they
walk, they walk crooked. Well, your own pastor walks crooked,
too, because of my disabilities. But, you see, you can tell that,
especially if you put someone who walks straight when they
walk, besides someone who walks crooked. Man, it's the same thing,
right? So the gospel opposes all that
is false by the fact that it is declared and that it is truth. Just declaring the gospel opposes
error. Opposes error. That's why Paul
said, I'm determined to preach nothing but Christ and Him crucified.
I'm not going to get mixed up in all these useless debates.
No. No. So what does the gospel proclaim?
It proclaims the finished work of Christ, salvation accomplished
by the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and it excludes any works
by man, woman, or children. And think about this when we're
talking to friends and loved ones who are caught up in false
religion. All that is false naturally responds in actions of self-preservation. Think of that. So when we're
talking to someone and they start giving them the truth and they
start responding in a way, in an angry way even sometimes,
that's just their self-preservation. You've wounded their pride. You've said something and the
Holy Spirit's taken it and convicted them of something. I'll tell
you why. Oh my, it's a double-edged sword.
Yeah, it cuts. It not only cuts, it kills. It cuts and kills. So, when we're talking to friends
and loved ones who are caught up in false religion, all that
is false naturally responds in an action of self-preservation.
If the truth declares that I have nothing when I believe, right?
That I have nothing when I believe. Nothing good in me. No merit
for salvation. And one believes that they do
have to have something One that they believe that they do have
to have something to gain merit with God, then the truth is perceived
as their enemy. That's what's happening. Because
they built up a refuge of lies, as Brother Henry used to say.
And all the truth comes in and just absolutely destroys the
refuge of lies. It did for me. Just destroyed the refuge of
lies that I had built up. Oh my. So remember that when
we're talking to friends and relatives. Remember that. Pray
the Lord to give you grace. And just, as Brother Zane and
I were talking, just be thankful for little cracks opened up the
doors, just a little crack even. Just be thankful for that. Just
be thankful for that. Never know what the Lord will
do later on. Now the relationship between Elijah and Elijah was
that of master and servant, as we saw over in 1 Kings at the
call of Elijah. And that continued until Elijah
was caught up into heaven, taken up into heaven. And again, this
pictures the same relationship of Christ and his ministers,
for Elijah tarried For when Elijah was alive, Elijah
was the servant. When Elijah was still in his
ministry and upon the completion of his mission, after again a
miraculous passage over the Jordan, and then supernaturally being
removed to heaven, that pictured and foreshadowed
when the Savior had finished the work given to him by the
Father to do, And after that, he had risen from the grave and
ascended up onto high. He left his ministers here, didn't
he? The apostles. And we learned in the study of
John 17 that certain men were appointed by him to serve as
ambassadors in the world, to preach the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ when he departed, and to act in his name and to
perpetuate his mission. All they are is mouthpieces,
as Norm said. We still keep talking about that message. We're just
mouthpieces. But I'll tell you what, not only am I an ambassador,
but so are you. Every believer is an ambassador
for Christ. Every single believer. Everyone. And remember, Elijah was to succeed
Elijah and to carry on that which God sent him to do. Elijah had been called from his
station of life. Remember, he was just plowing
in the field. God called him. What did he do? He forsook everything,
didn't he? He forsook everything. And in order for this to happen,
he was called by God through Elijah, right? But Elijah was
told by God, go and fetch Elijah, more or less, right? He's in
the field. He's at home working. Go get
him. My, oh my. And how did that happen? All according to God's will and
power. That's how it happened. All according to God's will and
power. And remember Elijah asked Elijah the searching question,
ask what I shall do for thee before I be taken away. And Elijah
had replied, pray thee that let a double portion of thy spirit
be upon me. We see three things revealed here with that answer. With that answer by Elijah, it
reveals Elijah's humility. His humility. It reveals an acknowledgement
of his weakness. I need a double portion. So he's revealing that he can't
do it without God being with him. That's so with every one
of God's called preachers. We can't do anything without
God being with us. And he sees his own weakness. You can tell from that question
that he sees his own weakness and he sees his own insufficiency.
I can't do this on my own. He was conscious of his unfitness
for his mission set before him. Turn if you would to 2 Corinthians
chapter 2. Elijah was conscious of the unfitness
for his mission set before him and he felt that nothing but
a plentiful supply of the spirit which had rested on Elijah would
be enough for that which was confronting him as the successor
of Elijah. Now this is a good place for
a young preacher to be. Good place for an older preacher
to be. Good place for any believer to be, right? I'm not sufficient
for these things. Look at what Paul writes here.
I love this. 2 Corinthians 2, verses 12 to
17. And I'll tell you what. I want
you to pray that God would open doors for me to speak to people
in the community here. Paul prayed for it all the time.
Pray for open doors. I'll pray for open doors for
you all too, if the Lord will, if it's his will, be a blessing.
Look at this, he says here, furthermore when I came to Troas to preach
Christ's gospel, look at that, what's he gonna preach? Christ's
gospel, good news, Christ and him crucified, the perfect finished
work of salvation in and through the Lord Jesus Christ and by
his shed blood. And a door was opened unto me of the Lord, look
at that, the Lord opened a door for him. I had no rest in my
spirit because I found not Titus my brother, but taking my leave
of them, I went from thence into Macedonia. Now thanks be to God,
which always causes us to triumph in Christ. Look at that. Sometimes
we don't think we're triumphant in Christ, and we are. Look what that says. Which causes
us to triumph in Christ. It's God who causes us to triumph
in Christ. and make it manifest the Savior
of His knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a
sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved and in them that
perish. So the one we're a saver of death
unto death. See the world, the world don't
want to hear that message. Death unto death. And the other,
the saver of life unto life. Oh, how sweet it is to hear gospel
preaching. How wonderful it is to our souls
to hear gospel preaching. And look what he says, and who
is sufficient for these things? That's Paul the Apostle saying
that. That's Paul the Apostle, who
wrote books in the New Testament. And he says, who's sufficient
for these things? See, that's where we gospel preachers
see ourselves. I'm not sufficient for this. But God equips us, God calls
us, sinful men that we are. And it says, for we are not as
many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity. But
as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ. Look at that. We speak in Christ. We preach
Christ and Him crucified. So happy is the one who has experimentally
learned the words, not by might nor power, but by my spirit,
saith the Lord. Happy is the one who's experienced
that in his life or her life. It's not by my might, it's not
by my power, but by the spirit, saith the Lord. My oh my, that's
Zechariah 4.6 if you want to write it down. And two, if Elijah
were to take Elijah's place at the head of the schools of the
prophets, then he needed a superior endowment to theirs, a double
supply of the spirit of wisdom and power, how to guide them,
how to lead them. And third, as the recognized
servant of God, he needed more than the rank and file of his
people, not only the spirits in dwelling, but also the spirit
resting upon him. He needed power from on high,
just as every preacher needs. My, oh, my. I know every grace preacher would
say amen to Paul's words there. Who's sufficient for these things?
My, oh, my. I haven't met one yet that said,
well, I am. Nope. Who's sufficient? So let's go back to our text
in 2 Kings. Let's read verses 12 to 15 of
2 Kings chapter 2. And Elijah saw it, saw Elijah
being carried up. and cried, my father, my father,
the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof. And he saw
him no more, and he took hold of his own clothes and rent them
in two places. He took up the mantle of Elijah
that fell from him and went back and stood by the bank of the
Jordan. When he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him
and smote the waters and said, where is the Lord God of Elijah?
And when he had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither
and Elijah went over. And when the sons of the prophets,
which were to view at Jericho, saw him, they said, The spirit
of Elijah doth rest on Elijah. And they came to meet him, and
bowed themselves to the ground before him. So we see in verse
13 that Elijah took up the mantle that fell from Elijah. And note, this is a time of great
sorrow for Elijah. This man is like a father to
him. This man's like a father to him,
but note that You remember Elijah went and hid in the cave? And
he was despairing, wasn't he? Note that Elijah's not despairing.
Now he's grieving. I'll tell you what, he's grieving.
He's grieving, but he's rejoicing too, because he just saw Elijah
get carried up to heaven. So it's both bitter and sweet
for him, isn't it? He knows his mentor, his father figure, has
just gone up to glory. And yet now here he is, he's
got the weight of being his successor now upon him. My oh my. It says, And when he had smitten
the waters, they parted hither and thither, and Elijah went
over. I'll read that again. And he comes to the bank of the
Jordan, and took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and
smote the waters, and said, Where is the God of Elijah? And when
he had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither, and
Elijah went over. So he's not sitting down in despair
and wringing his hands. He's moving forward, isn't he? You know, the darkest hour for
us is the best time to prove God's sufficiency. It's the best time for us to
prove God's sufficiency. And this is what Elijah does.
Look at verse 14. And he took the mantle of Elijah
that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is
the Lord God of Elijah? And when he had also had smitten
the waters, they parted hither and thither, and Elijah went
over. Consider now, first of all, the object, the object on
which this first miracle is wrought. It's a formable one. It's the
River Jordan. It's a river. It's flowing. It
doesn't tell us how deep it was. But the Jordan River in some
parts is quite wide. Now on the other side of the
river, Eliza has friends. He's got the Sons of the Prophets
over there in Jericho. But they're on the other side.
So he's got a problem he's facing, doesn't he? He's on the other side of the
water, the Jordan, and Jericho's on the other side of the Jordan. And A.W. Pink says he was probably unable
to swim, or surely he would have done so. His miracles are wrought
where there's no urgent need for them. Or, they're not wrought
where there's no urgent need for them. So, that's the first
thing I thought, well, you know, he could have swam over, but
if he could swim over, it wouldn't be a miracle, would it? Because
any man or woman could swim over, right? So he's obviously at a
part where he can't swim over. And there's no boats around.
We don't read in the text that there's any boats nearby. Sometimes
in those days, they had boats that would ferry people across. Roman legions, that's how they
crossed a lot of the rivers and stuff they came to. They would
find a local ferryman, and he'd ferry the legion across, 100
men at a time, or however many men they had to do. But it appears
like there's nothing like that around either. So a real difficulty,
a very real difficulty is before him. And he doesn't go down the river
and look for another way to cross, does he? No, the scripture declares
here that he went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. He
used to stand on the bank of the Jordan. Look at verse 13. He took up
also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and went back and
stood by the bank of the Jordan. He's looking across. And here's
this obstacle in front of him. Now to close our eyes to our
difficulties will get us nowhere, right? If we just shut our eyes
and the old saying, put your head in the sand like an ostrich,
you pull your head out, the problem is still there, isn't it? It's
still there. My, oh my. Dave and I talk about
our past. We do things that we shouldn't
have been doing, but our problems were still there after it was
all done. And even more, yeah, worse, worse
than before. So to close our eyes to our difficulties
won't get us nowhere. And there'd be nothing gained
if we just ignore them, just say, well, you know what, that's a
problem, but I'm just going to ignore it. And I'm, you know, that won't
get us anywhere either, will it? And we see before us in this
text that Jordan was a challenge to Elijah's faith. Pink said,
so he regarded, and so he dealt with it. That's what A.W. Pink
said. And think of one of the reasons why God allows us to
go through trials. Why does God allow us to go through
trials? Well, a lot of times it's to try us to see what kind
of metal we're made from. Because scripture says that trials
and temptations try our faith, don't it? Proves our faith. And God will always, remember
the refiner's fire, he's always got an eye on us. He always knows
how hot to turn it up and how not, when to cool it down, right?
And he'll never put something in us that'll destroy us. He
just won't do that. Oh my. My oh my. So here is a challenge to Elijah's
faith. And so here we go. Next let us
consider the instrument and means for the miracle before us. Let's
read verses 13 and 14 again. He took up the mantle of Elijah
that fell from him and went back and stood by the bank of the
Jordan And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him,
and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah?
And when he had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither,
and Elijah went over. Notice in verse 13 that the mantle
of Elijah's master fell at his feet. When Elijah was taken up
into glory, his mantle fell at the feet of Elijah. And just
the fact that Elijah had seen Elijah get carried up to heaven,
we know that he knew then that his prayer had been answered. Because Elijah said, if you see
me going up, your request will be granted. And see, again, like
I said last week, Elijah knew that what he asked was a hard
thing because he couldn't give it to him. But God could give
it to him. And God did give it to him, didn't
he? He did give it to him. Oh my. So not only did he get the gift
of a double portion of the Holy Spirit of God, but he also gets
the gift of the mantle, which was an additional token of him
receiving a double portion from the Lord. Now here he is. He stands at
the River Jordan. This test comes before him. What use would he make of his
master's mantle? Turn, if you would, to 1 Kings
chapter 3. Now testing always falls the
bestowment of a divine gift. Testing always falls the bestowment
of a divine gift. Look at this, this is one of
the most remarkable stories in scripture here. Solomon asked the Lord for an
understanding heart and wisdom, right? Above all other men, that
he might judge his people wisely and discern between good and
bad. And he was quickly confronted
with a situation by two women, each claiming the living child
as hers. Look at this. Look at these verses.
Verses 16 to 28 of 1 Kings 3, 16 to 18. And this is what I'm
saying here is the bestowment of the divine gift was given
and now here's a trial right before. Set right before. Then came there two women that
were harlots unto the king and stood before him. And the one
woman said, O Lord, I in this woman dwell in one house and
I was delivered of a child with her in the house. It came to
pass the third day after I was delivered that this woman was
delivered also. And we were together. There was
no stranger with us in the house save we two in the house. And
the woman's child died in the night because she overlaid it. And she rose at midnight and
took my son from beside me while thine handmaid slept, and laid
it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And the
other woman said, Nay, but the living is my son, and the dead
is thy son. And he said, No, but the dead
is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spoke before
the king. So here they are fighting before
the king, saying, It's mine. This child's mine. You gotta
have a lot of wisdom to deal with this, don't you? But the way, the wisdom Solomon
gives them, the wisdom that God gives Solomon here is absolutely
incredible. Because you know why? The real
mom would rather have that child alive than be killed. And the
false mom would rather have the child be killed than the real
mom get that baby. Look at this. This is an incredible
story. My, oh my. And the other woman
said, Nay, verse 23. Then said the king, The one saith,
This is my son, and that liveth, and thy son is dead. And the
other saith, Nay, but thy son is dead, and thy son is that
liveth. And the king said, Bring me a sword. Give him a sword.
Can you imagine this? Jill, you're a mama. And could
you imagine this? My, oh, my. King says, bring
me a sword. And they brought a sword before
the king. And the king said, divide the living child in two. Oh,
my gosh. The mom would be like, no! No! Right? The real mom. Let her
have him. That's what happens here. Look
at this. And they bought a sword before the king, and the king
said, divide the living child in two and give half to the one
and half to the other. Then spake the woman whose the
living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned. Think
of that, it's her son. And she knew the king would do
it. And they would have to obey the
king's word, no matter how much they didn't want to do it. Oh,
what wisdom God gave Solomon here. Oh my Lord, give her the
living child, and in no wise slay it. Look at that, what love,
what love, what love. But the other said, let it be
neither mine nor thine, but divide it. Okay, now we know what's
going on right there, don't we? Oh my, look at this. Then the
king answered and said, give her the living child, and in
no wise slay it. She is the mother thereof. And
look what happened. And all Israel heard of the judgment
which the king had judged. And they feared the king, for
they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment. My,
what a narrative. What an incredible story. It's
true, too, but incredible. Do you imagine how grateful that
lady was afterwards that the king spared her child and gave
him back to her? Oh, my. My, and think of this, no sooner
did the spirit of God descend upon Christ than he's taken in
the wilderness and tempted by Satan. So when there's a bestowment
of a divine gift, there's always a test. There's always a test. When the apostles were endowed
with power from on high and began to speak with other kings, they
were charged with, oh, they're a bunch of drunkards. They're
full of new wine. Bunch of drunkards. That was a trial for their faith.
My. So we see here before us, Elijah's
mantle fell at Elijah's feet and before Elijah smote the Jordan.
Now let's look at verse 14. And we see the mode of the miracle
before us. And he took the mantle of Elijah
that fell from him and smote the waters and said, where is
the Lord God of Elijah? And when he had also had smitten
the waters, they parted hither and thither and Elijah went over. Now here before us, we see that
this mantle of Elijah had been given to Elijah not to be idolized.
Not to be idolized. Remember the brazen serpent men,
they worshiped that, didn't they? Not to be idolized. No, not at
all. It's a revered memento. There's
a church that does that, isn't there, in this world? Supposedly
got all pieces of the cross and all this junk just to get money. That's all it's about. Just a
bunch of... I'm not even going to get into it. My oh my. So sad, isn't it? So sad. Because,
you know, people will idolize things. I remember what Donny
Bell said. He said, I was shocked at first when I heard him say
this. He said, if you find the cross of Christ, turn it into
a bunch of toothpicks. Otherwise, people idolize it. Their worship,
their fall down before it. It's so true. So true. We're natural idol worshipers,
aren't we? It's natural. It's in us. Oh my. My oh my. So this mantle, look again at
verse 14 again. And he took the mantle of Elijah
that fell from him, smote the waters, and said, Where is the
Lord God of Elijah? And when he had smitten the waters,
they parted hither, and Elijah went over. My oh my. You know, by staying with his
master Elijah, By staying with his master, Elijah had already
given proof that he was indwelt by the spirit. And now he's got
a double portion of the spirit, and he also has the mantle of
Elijah. And notice he uses the mantle
in the same way Elijah used it over in 2 Kings 2.8, the scripture
declares, and Elijah took the mantle and wrapped it together
and smoked the waters, and they divided hither and thither, so
they too went over on dry ground. And here we see, He's using the
mantle the same way that Elijah used it. In verse 14, chapter
2, 2nd Kings. And he took the mantle of Elijah
that fell from him and smote the waters and said, where is
the Lord God of Elijah? And when he had smitten the waters,
they parted hither and thither and Elijah went over. Dry ground. All by the power of God, beloved.
How are we born again? All by the power of God. How
are we redeemed? By the death and burial and resurrection
of Christ and the life of Christ, right? All by the power of God. It's all His work. My oh my. Now let us consider
the miracle or the meaning of the miracle. So far we've seen
Elijah's to be regarded all Through what we have read so far about
him as a representative servant, as a figure of the ministers
of Christ and their calling, their testings, the path they
must tread, their spiritual endowment. And this is true of all believers,
right? Not just God's preachers. It is true of all believers.
Not by might nor power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. That's
true for every one of us. My, oh my. So what's the message? What's
the meaning and message of this first miracle, the smiting and
dividing asunders of the water of Jordan? Well, clearly it shows
the victory over death, doesn't it? Elijah crossed over the Jordan
and was taken up into heaven, victory over death. Holy Spirit
sent back down to us, Elijah passes through, Elijah crosses
the Jordan, comes into the people. It's amazing. My, we're victorious
only in Christ, in him alone. My, oh my. What an undertaking. Paul said, who's sufficient for
these things? Who's sufficient to preach the gospel? My, oh my. And every gospel preacher,
we say, not me, but God. But you know what God does? God
calls us. God equips us. First of all,
he calls us with an effectual call. And we're born again, just
like everybody else who's a believer. And then he calls us to the ministry.
And it's not some call like, Wayne, you got to preach now. It's not like, I can't explain
it. You just know that you can't do anything else. And even Norm and I were, Norm
was talking to Jake about that, and he told Jake, he said, the
call of God is where you just, you're shut up to do that, and
nothing else at all. Nothing else at all. But the
preacher must be divinely equipped. He must be born again, first
of all. Right? In order for me to preach the
gospel, I must be born again. To preach and to say, you must
be born again. Right? He must believe the gospel. He must believe on Christ. I can't tell you about someone
that I don't know, right? But I can tell you about someone
I do know. And by God given faith, I know
Christ. I'm just going to brag on him, beloved. I'm going to
brag on him. Another thing is they must be
given the message of the gospel to proclaim. And that's proclaiming
Christ. That's not 50 ways to be a better
Christian. It's nothing like that. It's
Christ and Him crucified. It's proclaiming Christ. It's
looking at the scriptures and saying, my, look at Christ here.
And even here in this study so far, we've seen Christ pictured
with Elijah going and rising up to heaven and then Elijah
coming back across the Jordan as the Holy Spirit, right? It's
a picture of Christ and the Holy Spirit. It's absolutely amazing.
And then he performs more miracles than any other prophet. My oh
my. And the last thing for the gospel
preacher, he must be empowered by the Holy Spirit of God. If
all you hear is my words, ain't gonna do you no good. It's got
to be taken by the Holy Spirit and used to bless your hearts
by him, by his power. That's why Paul said, who's sufficient
for these things? None of us. But God equips us,
calls us, equips us, and sends us. And then for the rest of
our lives, all we want to do is pour out for Christ. And that's given to the preacher
and also all believers. You must be born again. You must
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, right? You must be empowered
by the Holy Spirit of God to embrace the message and embrace
Christ, right? It's the same for all of us,
beloved. And Elijah smote the waters in the exercise of faith,
and A.W. Pink said this, he says the words,
where is the Lord God of Elijah, or give proof that thou art with
me too. That's what A.W. Pink says. And this is the part I believe
that's really gonna bless us. The Lord is ever with us. You
ever get to the spot where you think, Lord, where are you? Where are you? You know, the
Lord ain't gone nowhere. Whenever I find myself in those
situations, it's my heart that's wandered away. Not God. He says, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. I'll be with you all the time, Wayne. I've
had some pretty dark days in my walk with Christ, but I've
had more wonderful days than I have dark days. But there's
been some dark days. There's been some trying days.
There's been some, yeah, we need them. As I said, at those times
is when God really, he just draws us close to him. I was talking
to a dear sister this week and she said, you know, I always
seem to be going through something. I said, yeah, Scott Richards
and the words are so right. Christian's either in trouble,
coming out of trouble, or going into trouble. She just smiled. It's true. It's so true. But
let this comfort our hearts. Our Lord is ever with his people.
And you know, he demonstrates that every day to us, even when
we don't see it. He is ever with us all the time,
even when we don't acknowledge it. There's not a second that
passes in a day that he's not with us. Look at verse 14. Let us consider the value of
this wonderful miracle. Look at this. And he took the
mantle of Elijah that fell from him and smote the waters and
said, where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when he also had
smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither and Elijah
went over. Let this wonderful truth here before us sink deep
into our souls, beloved. We see even though Elijah wasn't
present, The God of Elijah was with Elijah. Now we have loved ones who depart
to be with the Lord, but God has never left us. Elijah's gone. And here's Elijah
going across that Jordan. And as proof by God that he's
with him, he parts them waters like it's nothing. It's all done by the power of
God. Elijah wasn't present and yet this miracle proved that
the God of Elijah was right there with Elijah. That's true with
every one of us, beloved. He's right here right now with
us. We're going to go home and he's going to be right there
with us at home too. He doesn't, now think of this thing. We have
to get rest. We have to get rest, don't we? He never slumbers. He never sleeps. And his eye is always upon his
people. Ever watchful over us. And this also, with the Lord
opening the waters like that, this also was proof that Elijah
had received a double portion of his master's spirit. And by
the same means as we saw earlier in verse eight, by the same means
as his master employed, God was pleased to honor Elijah's faith and manifest the fact that he
was with Elijah by parting that water. My, oh my, and this miracle typifies
the victory of Christ over the grave. The deliverance of the
church from spiritual death and resurrection of our bodies in
the day to come. In that song we sang, Lord's
come and scattered our night. As soon as we sang that, I thought,
he's taken us from darkness to light. He scattered the night
that we were in. He scattered the darkness that
we were in, beloved. It's gone. Now we see Christ
by faith. We never saw him before. Absolutely
wonderful. Oh, my. And we've been awakened
from our spiritual death. We've been made alive, quickened
to come out of that spiritual death we were in. And soon, the
resurrections of our bodies will occur, too. Oh, my. And last, let us consider the
recognition of this miracle. Look at 2 Kings 2, verse 15. And when the sons of the prophets,
which were to view at Jericho, saw him, they said, The spirit
of Elijah doth rest on Elijah. And they came to meet him, and
bowed themselves to the ground before him. The miracle which
the sons of the prophets had just witnessed the partner of
that Jordan River, they saw that, convinced them, and they accepted
Elijah as successor of Elijah. The parted waters of the Jordan
again demonstrated the presence of the Holy Spirit of God, didn't
it? And his power was with Elijah. So the regeneration of souls
makes manifest that the servant of God has been endowed with
power from on high. When we're born again by the
Holy Spirit of God, we've been endowed by power from on high,
beloved. It's his work, according to his
will. And with these spiritual perceptions,
which we now have, we accept and honor faithful ministers. Who are to be esteemed very highly
in love for their work's sake, 1 Thessalonians 5, 13. And no
one has to tell us to love God's people, we just love them, don't
we? We just love them. So rejoice, beloved of God. Just
as God was with Elijah, God is with his people every day, every
minute, every second. Watching over us with an eternal
love, not anger, but with an eternal love. and we are in his hands. Praise
be to God.